Age rage

I'd better start saving up.\nIf I were to take seriously the cues provided for me on aging from consumer culture and the popular media, I have about 10 more years before I'll have do some heavy spending to keep up any kind of desirable appearance. \nEye cream, hair dye, teeth whitener -- and, of course, having crap squirted in my face to make the faint lines from years of laughing and smiling and experiencing life disappear ... It will all top the shopping list.\nIn U.S. popular culture, youth is overvalued and people beyond 60 may as well not exist -- especially women. Similarly, a classmate of mine recently, and despairingly, declared herself "an old woman" on her 22nd birthday.\nObviously she is not one -- so where are the old women?\nAccording to the most recent Prime Time Diversity Report by Children NOW, women in their 50s and 60s account for only 8 percent of the characters on prime time television for six major broadcast networks. Men account for just 16 percent.\nIn a recently-aired episode of NBC's "Las Vegas" that I was unfortunate enough to screen, the plot involved a woman no less than 75 years old. Her character was fragile, stubborn and easily persuaded by the younger characters of the show. She was perceived as virtually incompetent.\nThis infatuation with youth (or aversion to old age) is discouraging and unfortunate.\nDoes the quality of one's life decrease so much after thirty? Forty? Seventy?\nSure, one's body typically decreases in health and attractiveness with age -- metabolism slows down, flesh wrinkles and sags, bones weaken. Physically, it's largely bad news all around.\nStill, can you imagine all the knowledge and insight that an individual has accumulated by, say, their 80th year? \nIn the December/January 2006 issue of BUST magazine ("for women with something to get off their chests"), The Daily Show's Samantha Bee is quoted saying how she can't wait to be 80, because she will be so cool. \nI have similar sentiments. Armed with a wealth of knowledge, I can't wait to be 80 (if it's in my cards to be) and kick everyone's rhetorical ass. \nI regret the idea that youth is "the time of one's life" and, especially, the concept of "sewing one's wild oats while they're young." That's a lot of unnecessary pressure for a young person. While I'm not promoting holding off on whatever life experience an individual is after, it needn't be considered necessary to do before a certain birthday. It's likely (though certainly never promised) that we in college have a lot of life left.\nAlso, I detest when my peers call an elder "cute" upon happening to see an older couple holding hands, or even just grocery shopping. That seems disrespectful and infantilizing to these adults. \nI'll take a couple of wrinkles over Teri Hatcher-esque rubber facial skin any day -- I just wish marketers and television producers could agree.\nSee you at bingo Saturday.